Researchers call for provincial action on youth eating habits

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This article was published 20/04/2023 (1265 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nutrition researchers are recommending Manitoba form a task force to encourage healthy eating habits, after a pre-COVID-19 pandemic study of Grade 9 students found most weren’t getting enough fruits or vegetables.

The majority of students didn’t eat enough healthy food and instead turned to processed foods high in salt and saturated fat, according to the survey of 1,587 students, results of which were recently published in a research report on Food and Nutrition Security for Manitoba Youth.

University of Manitoba researchers Joyce Slater and Alan Katz led the study.

It involved surveying students from across the province on what they ate in a day, finding most of them weren’t eating healthy even if they had access to and could afford nutritious food.

“The reality is that most of the students in the province have diets that are really putting them at risk for future health problems. So if anything surprised me, it was how pervasive that is,” said Slater, a professor in food and human nutritional sciences.

Slater has been doing such research for 30 years, and said childhood eating habits tend to follow into adulthood.

“I feel like people sort of roll their eyes and go, ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s not that big a deal; kids are kids’… But it is really bad. Type 2 diabetes is predicted to quadruple in the coming decades” among children, she said Thursday.

The food groups not getting enough love among the students: 94 per cent didn’t eat enough fruits and vegetables; 74 per cent didn’t the recommended servings of milk or milk alternatives; and 57 per cent didn’t get enough meat or meat alternatives.

Students surveyed were getting enough carbohydrates and protein, and most of them — 76 per cent — got enough iron. About 90 per cent lacked fibre.

Thirty-seven schools in 14 divisions across Manitoba filled out the survey on school computers, sharing information such as what students ate, how often they snacked, whether they considered themselves to be experiencing food insecurity, and self-rating their health and well-being.

The surveys were completed between fall 2018 and spring 2019.

“What we clearly found is, despite many of the students not being from food-insecure households, they still didn’t eat healthy diets,” Slater said.

The study didn’t delve into diet culture or the influence of social media on body image, but Slater said those concerns shouldn’t be dismissed.

A significant proportion of the Grade 9 students said they were trying to lose or gain weight. Nearly one-third (30 per cent) of the girls said they were trying to lose weight, as did 19 per cent of boys. Twenty-three per cent of boys and nine per cent of girls were trying to gain weight.

A provincial nutrition task force, school meal programs and greater public-health education could be the answer to preventing chronic illness for Manitobans later in life, Slater said.

“This isn’t about wagging our fingers at parents and saying, you need to do a better job with your kids. I think parents are doing the best job they can,” she said.

“I think what we need are some antidotes to this.”

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com